The bomb squad robot is ready at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Calif., on Thursday, April 18, 2013.
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This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. APTOS - Cabrillo College's upper campus was evacuated for about 4 hours on Thursday after a suspicious package was reported about 10:15 a.m.
The Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office Bomb Team destroyed the package but authorities had not yet described its contents as of 4:15 p.m. Thursday. No one was injured and the upper campus reopened about 2 p.m., said Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Deputy April Skalland.
Cabrillo College Interim President John Hendrickson said more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff were told to leave in person, by phone and through the campus text message alert system, AlertU.
"Safety is foremost," Hendrickson said. "I'm glad we acted the way we did. We believe that taking a cautious and protective stance is the only and best course of action."
Someone reported a white, roughly 1-by-1 foot package above a recycling bin outside building 400, according to the college's staff.
The two-story building has at least six classrooms and offices for human arts, social sciences, anthropology, communications and the Cabrillo Voice student newspaper. Deputies sent an AlertU text message to subscribers at 10:39 a.m. that stated buildings 300, 350, 400 and 500 were being evacuated because of a suspicious package.
The county's bomb team examined the package with a robot and destroyed it about 12:50 p.m.
Central Fire, the California Highway Patrol and American Medical Response responded to the call.
Carena Dewis, a 43-year-old division coordinator for human arts and social sciences, was one of a few hundred people who had to leave building 400.
"I'd just come back from the library and someone said, 'Come help me clear out classrooms.' So we did." Dewis said. A few hundred students were generally calm as they walked down hill and across Soquel Drive.
Cabrillo student Aaron Smith, 24, said he was on his way to class from a parking garage when "a wave of people" walked toward him.
He said he didn't think he was in immediate danger because the crowd wasn't running.
Smith, a political science and broadcast journalism student, waited for the campus to reopen on the lower campus side of Soquel Drive. He said the scare made him miss some schoolwork.
"I'm down two classes right now," Smith said.
The situation comes as police across the nation are on heightened alert following Monday's bombing at the Boston Marathon, which killed three people.
Follow Sentinel reporter Stephen Baxter on Twitter at @sbaxter_sc.
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